In this plot, a principal character who is supposed to be significantly older than most is opposed by a villain who is relatively young and apparently in his physical prime.

The plot ends with a big fight that has the young villain sneering that his victory is inevitable because he's younger than the older hero.

In these kinds of plots, the young villain will typically be introduced as he one-ups the old hero as a part of his scheme, because You Can't Thwart Stage One. However, the older hero eventually rises again and soundly defeats the young villain. At or near the end, the old hero proclaims something like "I may be older, but I'm better!" Furthermore, the other principal characters quickly agree that the older hero is still a valuable member of the team.

Usually, what eventually causes the scales to tip back in the hero's favor is that him being older also means that he is wiser and the fact that Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb. The hero might realize that while he might not be able to defeat his younger opponent through physical strength alone, he can outsmart the villain, either through superior combat experience if it comes to a direct confrontation, or, if the hero is the more shrewd type, by playing on his opponent's youthful recklessness and impatience and trick him into doing something that becomes his own undoing.

Examples:

Most of the Captains and Visoreds participating in Fake Karakura town battle are older than aforementioned main antagonist (especially those characters, who fight him directly), who is rather young, but still older than several other heroes.

Yoruichi fights her former subordinate and student Soifon during the Soul Society arc.

Well...Orochimaru's mind/soul/consciousness is at least 50. But his body at that time is young. Though to be fair Even Orochimaru's actual age is younger than the third hokage as he was said hokage's student in his day as a genin.

This happens to Jiraiya when he fights his former student, Pain. This is even lampshaded when he comments on the irony of Pain treating him like a child when Pain dismisses his views as childish.

And Minato is also older than his last opponent, Tobi who is actually his student, Obito.

Most climactic fights in Rurouni Kenshin follow this template, as the titular character is a decade older than most of his supporting cast. Specifically comes into play Enishi Yukishiro, his vengeful brother-in-law.

Mai-HiME has an arc where the various HiMEs who are at youngest middle school age and at oldest full adults go up against nine-year old Alyssa Searrs.

In Bakuman。, the clash between Ashirogi Muto and their former fan, the up-and-coming Nanamine. While Ashirogi Muto are fairly young, they also note that they're defending their rank against the newcomers.

Although he may not necessarily be a strapping young man himself (depending on whether or not you're going by Don Rosa's canon), Evil Counterpart John D. Rockerduck is the younger villain to Scrooge McDuck's older hero. Not to mention Magica De Spell and several of the Beagle Boys. You'd be hard pressed to find a notable enemy of Scrooge who wasn't significantly younger than him.

This trope could be considered one of the few things that make Rockerduck different from Glomgold: Whereas Glomgold is basically Scrooge as he would've turned out if he hadn't "made it square", Rockerduck is a more modern businessman who is willing to spend away his fortune if it suits him and is sometimes depicted as being more accepted by society than Scrooge is.

A collection of classic Rockerduck stories mentioned in the introduction that by what passes for canon in Disney stories, Rockerduck is Scrooge's superior in some markets - like media and entertainment, because Scrooge doesn't "get" the concepts well enough to apply his talent for business to it. The usual solution is to rope in his younger relatives, actually needing their advice and not just their underpaid hard labour.

Happens a lot in comics featuring superheroes from The Golden Age of Comic Books. One of the major reasons why the original Wildcat has a huge fanbase is because of an early issue of JSA, where he took on the Injustice Society alone. With a broken leg. Naked (for the first few pages). This seems to be pretty common for the Justice Society of America these days.

In the Spider-Man comics, Aunt May has had some of these moments. The most recent was when the Chameleon tried to kill her by pretending to be Peter. She baked him cookies and made him tea, while knitting a nice shawl... and when he revealed himself, she revealed that she'd known all along, and that the "almond" cookies had cyanide in them (actually, just a tranquilizer, but she was feeling mean). The last thing he saw was her holding up the shawl, with "Gotcha!" embroidered on it.

In the classic comic, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the Dark Knight, who is feeling very insecure about getting older, decides to fight the young and inhumanly strong leader of the Mutants hand to hand. As a result, Bats is badly beaten and barely escapes with the help of a new Robin. After he's recovered, Batman arranges a second fight, but this time, he does it intelligently by handicapping the fighting area, using a mudhole to limit his opponent's movements, and using his superior experience in fighting techniques to overcome the villain's physical superiority.

Although they are roughly the same age, Superman's perpetually youthful appearance and infinite energy make him look like this next to the battered, aging Bruce Wayne during their climactic showdown.

In the comic book Sin City by Frank Miller and the associated film, the Yellow Bastard ridicules Hartigan that he is "too old to even lift that cannon [he] is carrying." Of course Hartigan wins the day, and then kills himself after saving the girl, because he's so old it's not worth himself staying alive and keeping Nancy, a young woman, a target.

In Deathstroke, Slade is targetted by a younger villain, Jannissary, who repeatedly hails him as "old man", but defeats him. Subverted in that Jannissary had been hired for the job, by a man who (accurately) says that Slade is out to kill him; when Slade has Jannissary at his mercy, he explains why. When Slade goes in for the kill, he first returns the money paid to Jannissary and expresses his admiration for Jannissary's principles.

Technically the case with The Flash and Professor Zoom with the latter being from the distant future, making him a lot younger than Flash.

[Evelyn is cut off in a parking lot] Evelyn Couch: Hey! I was waiting for that spot! Girl #1: Face it, lady, we're younger and faster! [Evelyn rear-ends the other car six times] Girl #1: What are you doing?Girl #2: Are you crazy?Evelyn Couch: Face it, girls, I'm older and I have more insurance.

Star Wars has it in an interesting way when Yoda is forced to fight his former student Count Dooku. Dooku is eighty years old, but Yoda is nine hundred. Similarly, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi dealt with this a couple of times after Anakin's fall.

Not to mention the example in the page quote, where Darth Vader fights Obi-Wan Kenobi - a man at least fifteen years his senior.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop. After being caught by the Big Bad of the criminals taking over the mall, Paul admits that he was younger, stronger and smarter than he was. And that literally he was the man with the gun.

There was a minor example in The 13th Warrior, when an old warrior who'd befriended the protagonist gets challenged by a much younger and larger opponent. He proceeds to prove that skill matters more than size or age in hand-to-hand combat.

The entire plot of Rocky Balboa leads up to Rocky's comeback match against the undefeated 29-year-old champ, Mason "The Line" Dixon, at a point when Rocky himself is just shy of 60.

In Dragonheart: Bowen, a knight of the Old Code, eventually fought back against his former pupil, Einon, when he became king and showed he was just as vile as his father, if not moreso.

Morgan Freeman played retired prize-fighter Eddie Dupris in Million Dollar Baby, and for most of the movie he was a kind, soft spoken old man. That is, until one of the younger boxers, Shawrelle, started beating on Danger, a young man with a few mental issues who was basically the laughingstock of the gym. In a Crowning Moment of Awesome, he steps into the ring, reassures Danger that everything is going to be alright, and borrows one of his gloves. Shawrelle mocks him, saying: "Now I get to fight a retard, and an old man! Somebody better call ESPN 'cause you can't write this shit!" Dupris punches him right in the face. Suddenly realizing that he's serious, Shawrelle tries to retaliate, but Dupris' years of experience allow him to easily block, and then he hits him again, with his bare fist, knocking him unconscious. Moral of the story: never assume that just because a man has a soothing voice, he can't kick your ass. Because he so can.

Live Free or Die Hard is built around this; we get John McClane, the world-weary old-school cop vs Thomas Gabriel, the younger high-tech computer hacker.

This trope is often used in John Wayne's later films, very notably in True Grit and The Shootist. But even as early as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon you have ageing Nathan Brittles - about to be retired from the army - up against young chief Red Shirt, while bonding with his contemporary, chief Pony That Walks. Red River and The Searchers, where Wayne played characters who are, to say the least, morally ambiguous, invert the trope in a couple of scenes.

This is the main plot of the second half of Soldier, Kurt Russel manages to defeat a force of younger genetically engineered super soldiers thanks to his decades of combat experience.

For the loosest definition of "hero", in Jurassic World we have Rexy, the T. rex from the first movie now in her 20's, as the older (anti-)hero vs the I. rex's younger villain in the climax.

Another loose definition of "hero", in Godzilla (2014) we have Godzilla, who is literally millions of years old, vs the male and female MUTO's, who are only a few days old.

Literature

Pretty much the whole point of Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde, from the Discworld books.

Also, the conflict between Granny Weatherwax and Diamanta, in Lords and Ladies.

The conflict between Granny Weatherwax and the Queen of the Elves in the same book is an interesting example because the Queen of the Elves, being an elf, is many centuries old, whereas Granny Weatherwax is just an elderly human. However, Granny has learned more through actual life experience. Or as she puts it, "What can't grow can't change. What can't change can't learn."

Also Death vs. New Death in Reaper Man.

Sourcery, with the child Coin as the antagonist and adult wizards like Rincewind as the protagonists.

Of course, behind Coin is his father, who died of what seems to be at least partly old age at the start of the story...

In Twenty Years After, the sequel to The Three Musketeers, we have Mordaunt (who's in his early twenties) against the titular Musketeers and Lord de Winter (all of them at least in their forties). Possibly a case of Antagonistic Offspring if you interpret Mordaunt as being Athos' son.

While generally averted in most Watch books, Anton's antagonist in Twilight Watch turns out to be his much younger former neighbor vampire Kostya.

Live-Action TV

Murdoch Mysteries: James Gillies, the arch-villain of the show, is a university student in his debut episode, and would therefore be around 20 years old in Season 2. Detective William Murdoch, on the other hand, is approaching middle age.

Gloriously subverted in with the two main characters. Iconic country singer Rayna Jaymes and younger shining star Juliette Barnes generally don't like and can't stand each other. However, they gradually become warmer to each other as they slowly realize that they are Not So Different.

Appears inverted but not so gloriously subverted with Rayna's (eventual ex) husband Teddy and her father Lamar. Since both are Corrupt Corporate Executives, Teddy at first was being presented as A Lighter Shade of Black. Eventually, their feud reaches Evil Versus Evil territory. In the end, Teddy watches Lamar die of a heart attack in season 2 and Teddy himself is arrested at the end of season 3.

The aged but locally popular challenger Jerry Lynn vs the younger, cocky foreign champion Nigel McGuinness in Ring of Honor...though the fans seemed to be cheering for Lynn out of sympathy, as they started to turn on him when he actually won the belt from McGuinness.

Yoshihiro Tajiri vs a good deal of the roster in his SMASH promotion but The Triple Tails specifically targeted him for his age. However, they're first targets were Yusuke Kodama and Makoto, who were both younger than at least one Triple Tail, Kana. Kana changed their targets to "the old men" after Tajiri came to their rescue.

William Regal vs Kassius Ohno in Florida Championship Wrestling's WWE revival(though the payoff didn't come till 2013 after the promotion was scrapped in favor of NXT). Though it was Regal was the physical aggressor, as he couldn't check his temper to Ohno repeatedly calling him worthless. Chris Hero would later be on the receiving end of this, the older Hero against Trent Barretta in EVOLVE.

Dave Finlay vs. Sami Callihan in EVOLVE. In this case, it was the "hero" going after "the villain" in an effort to redeem him.

On March 12th 2012, Cherry had a match at Union Pro Wrestling against her long standing rival, Mio Shirai, with the stipulation being that if Cherry lost, her real age would become public knowledge. It was subverted afterwards when Cherry won but the passport that was being used as her proof of age was stolen by GAMI, who was eventually revealed to be older than Cherry.

Played with in SHINE, where "The Dinosaur Hunter" Leah Von Dutch was older than two of her targets, not that she realized it. Then averted when she put out an open challenge to the "Shinosaurs", which was answered by Sweet Saraya.

Team Bad, the younger villain Tag Team vs the 108th District and the Fella Twins in UCW-Zero, not that the latter two were "old" but team bad were teenagers.

Tabletop Games

While it's hard to find any unambiguously genuine hero in the Crapsack World of Warhammer 40,000, the Horus Heresy backstory does have the God-Emperor facing off against his favorite adopted son Horus, who has become corrupted by the Chaos Gods, with the Horus Heresy eventually culminating in a duel between the Emperor and Horus, resulting in Horus dying and the Emperor sustaining mortal wounds and being kept kept alive by the Golden Throne.

Even if the age difference isn't that visible between Cloud and Kadaj in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, this trope is in effect. Kadaj looks to be in his mid to late-teens whereas Cloud is in his early twenties. In fact, Kadaj (and his brothers) can't be older than two. One of the creators did mention that he wanted Cloud to face someone younger than him.

On that note, though, Dirge of Cerberus twists this trope into a pretzel....We've got Vincent, our WoobieAnti-Hero, who's 27 physically but had been asleep (which probably means suspended animation) for thirty years, give or take a few, when the original game took place, so he was 57 then. Dirge of Cerberus takes place 3 years later, which makes him 60 chronologically. Confused yet? Now throw in a 25-year-old Omnicidal Maniacwho's possessed by a mad scientist assumed to be older chronologically than Vincent himself and if that's not bad enough, just throw in a couple of spirits as old as the planet itself possessing the above and we're into Mind Screw territory.

In Tekken, Jin vs. Heihachi and Kazuya, and (possibly) the rivalry between Jin vs. Hwoarang.

EXTREMELY slightly in SoulCalibur, with Siegfried v.s. Nightmare. Nightmare is basically Soul Edge's evil animating armor without Siegfried, and Soul Edge has been around for a LONG time. Siegfried is only in his 20s.

This happens in Space Channel 5 Part 2. Ulala, who is 22 years old, takes on Purge, who is only 18 years old.

A slight example in Revelations, where Ezio is only 6 years older than the real Big BadPrince Ahmet.

With the exception of Ocelot and Big Boss, the only guyies even older than Snake, Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4 is easily the senior of everyone he fights. And that was before he started to succumb to Rapid Aging.

Henry Hatsworth looks to be quite a bit older than his rival, Weasleby. He's definitely older than Cole.

The Orion Conspiracy: Devlin McCormack is the older protagonist and Captain Shannon is the younger antagonist. The antagonist even insults Devlin's age at one point.

Webcomics

The Reveal at the end of the "A Mushroom Kingdom Carol" Story Arc in Brawl in the Family, which explained why the Big Bad of that arc was so strong compared to The Hero. The Bowser that the aging Mario fought wasn't his old rival, but a now adult Bowser Junior. Upon realizing this, Mario takes advantage of his childhood fear of water that he put in him.

"Years of therapy, wasted!"

Western Animation

An episode of Gargoyles had Hudson and an injured Goliath playing cat and mouse with a gun-toting Demona. Hudson's plan was eventually revealed to be: hide just out of sight and let her yammer on till the sun came up. Despite what it looks like, this is actually something of an inversion — Demona is really several centuries older than Hudson, thanks to magical eternal youth on her part and a case of suspended animation on his, so she has both the advantage of centuries of experience without the disadvantages of aging. Hudson's victory is instead thanks to Demona's Immortal Immaturity. Whereas Demona has spent her centuries in a vicious cycle of rage, distrust and betrayal, Hudson made peace with life and found wisdom.

Hudson: I know how to wait.

Youngblood mostly plays this role in Danny Phantom where his spunky, immature attitude clashes with Danny's teenage maturity. This becomes key in one episode. Because Youngblood can only be seen by children, Jazz doesn't realize he exists because she thinks like an adult despite being sixteen. Danny however, takes inspiration from Youngblood's bratty, childish behavior and starts behaving like an Annoying Younger Sibling, rendering Jazz to start throwing a tantrum and embracing her childhood, and importantly, spotting Youngblood. She then helps Danny kick his ass.

Parodied in Futurama with Professor Farnsworth's Rival Ogden WEEEERNSTROM!! constantly calling the 160 year old Professor "old man" etc, in keeping with this tropes style. The twist? Wernstrom is "merely" 120. Yeah, he's only slightly less ancient.

Wernstrom: Go home before you embarrass yourself, old man! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap before the ceremonies.

In the obscure Canadian series Zeroman, Rusty was probably young enough to be the hero's grandson.

In Winx Club both Griffin and Faragonda have a example. Griffin in Season 1 when she fought the Trix for Cloudtower, but loses. Faragonda in Season 3 when she fought Valtor, but she loses too.

Duke Igthorn of Adventures of the Gummi Bears is obviously a lot younger than his primary rival and target King Gregor, whose kingdom he's always trying to conquer, and usually calls him "old man" whenever they cross swords.

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